I have heard that if you put them in a water trough for a day or to it will clean them out, but i've never tried it.

Prepare with corn meal, salt, and a little bit of lemon pepper. After frying your fish, set them in a shallow trey and place in a smoker full of mesquite wood for about 15 to 20 minutes. Unbelievable taste!
Anyone else ever smoked their fish?

Well I weren't gonna say a thing as my recipes are closely guarded family secrets. But I did get a few new ideas from this so I'll pass on one. 2 parts flour 1 part corn meal, lemon pepper, seasoning salt, garlic powder and depending on type of lemon pepper maybe a touch more black pepper. Beat enough eggs for a dip and dip in fillets then run through breading mix then into the oil with em. This is my fried chicken recipe and it works great on fish. By the way I rinse my fillets until the water comes off clear even makes sandies from Rowlett Creek edible.

Flatlander,
Yep, I've been to Fausto's the first week the month while fishing on TBend. Great catfish and has a very distinctive taste. When Twitty's was still young, it had the best food in that area (Hemphill) you ever want...just as good as your grandma's home country cooking. The pies were to die for!

Closely guarded?? Heh,heh,heh....Dave, someone in your family let this one out over 25 years ago.

But, it does put me in mind of something I've been doing with the commercial fish batter like Louisiana's, Zataran, and Young's.....Add 1/4 part just plain yellow corn meal if you like your fish to be crunchy?? Which I do.

I take it all these recipes will work on crappie as well? You guys have me wanting to try this stuff out...I noticed someone posted using masa instead of flour for batter and some of you posted cornmeal....so many choices, I may have to try them all!

Maybe I over looked it in all the posts, but one of the most important parts of frying fish and having it taste good, regardless of recipe, is to make sure it is well drained and not greasy. TBill

I was in the Chandeluers last week and we had some really good fried speckled trout. The 5 minute marinade was:

a little mustard

1 capful of Zataran's liquid crab boil

a little garlic salt

a little cayene pepper

Breaded with Zataran's fish fry. The secret was the crab boil!

I do not agree with freezing fish in water anymore. I did it for years until I had some outstanding fried fish at a friends house. He said water makes filets mushy. His advise was to minimize water contact with the filets. Just rinse quickly after cleaning, drain, and freeze. Get as mich air out of the bag as possible and freeze. NO WATER. I did a side-by-side and the fish frozen (and thawed) in the water was mushy... the other was flaky. If your catfish has a bad taste, you are eating mudcat, or you are not cleaning it properly. Just keep the snow white meat. You will discard a lot of meat... but the snow white meat is what you eat.

fish4bass, I agree with your friend 99%....The 1% I don't agree on.....Spend the money and buy a vacuum packer. Folks, there is simply no better way to put up fish filets.

They thaw much quicker. They are much fresher. And, like fish4bass mentions, they are never mushy. Including frozen shad for bait.

MikeC -

I agree with you on the vacuum sealer. I do have a question for you. What type of sealer do you have.

I ask because 1 out of every 15 seals, air will get into my fish. Obviously, it didn't seal right, but I was wondering if you experienced the same or do you always get a perfect seal everytime?

Not to change the subject....but just curious.

Cosmo, there is two things that might help you.

I dry my filets very good, and I stack them like cord wood on three or four folds of paper towels, then put them inside the bag. Because I don't care how much patting to dry it you try....Fish will still have moisture. And, moisture of any kind will make sealing very hit or miss. The paper towels serve to wick up small amounts of moisture, and they simply wash off when you thaw the fish out.

Second.....I have started doing a double seal on both ends of my bags.

I do this because, yes I have experienced what you are experiencing.....I use the Food Saver brand...I forget what the company name is. It's the one they sell at Sam's Wholesale.

Mike -

Thanks.

Just to be clear....you actually put the folded paper towel in the bag and seal it? If so, does it still take about an hour to thaw when you dunk them in water?

Thanks again.

To answer your first question....Yes I do. In so far as the thawing.....The paper towel does not add to the thaw time.

I just put up a bunch last evening just as I described above. Man, the striper fishing is still going wild up here on Texoma.

I only kept twenty of all the fish we caught yesterday, and this still made up three vacuum packed bags 11" wide and 14" long, stuffed to the gills with white meat after all the red meat was trimmed off.

Man the neighborhood fish fry is just about ready.